Arts, Briefly

On the 39th anniversary of the day John Lennon was inspired to compose "A Day in the Life," his original draft of the song, beginning with the words "I read the news today, oh boy," was put up for sale yesterday. Bonhams auction house announced that the single sheet of handwritten lyrics includes the first two complete drafts of Lennon's contribution to the song, which he wrote with Paul McCartney. It was inspired by The Daily Mail of Jan. 17, 1967, and was recorded later that year for the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." The manuscript was sold in London in 1992 for $100,000 by the estate of the Beatles' road manager, Mal Evans. The family of the collector who bought it is selling it now, in a sealed-bid auction that ends on March 7.

U2 Fans Chasing Too Few Tickets

U2 was coming, and São Paulo was rocking -- but not in an entertaining way. Chaos was rampant in the Brazilian city on Monday as tens of thousands of fans of the Irish rockers sought tickets, Reuters reported. With lines snaking around city blocks under a blazing sun while police squads stood watch as tempers began to fray, demand outstripped supply and cashiers' machines broke down. No major incidents were reported, and U2, set to perform on Feb. 20 in the Morumbi Stadium on its Vertigo tour, scheduled an additional performance the next day, according to the organizers, who issued an apology. "There were 73,000 tickets," said Paulo Pompilio, a press officer for the supermarket chain Pão de Açúcar, where tickets were sold at a limited number of stores. "The demand was much, much more. We estimated about 100,000 people want tickets, and all were buying the 10-ticket limit." Some fans criticized the prices. Although student tickets were available at half price, the cheapest full-price ticket cost about $75, or two-thirds of Brazil's minimum monthly wage.

A New Jane Austen For the 21st Century

Don't look for her anytime soon on Oprah, but Jane Austen, dead since 1817, is about to get a jolt of 21st-century image-making. When it is finished, Austen, the clergyman's daughter whose novels include "Sense and Sensibility," "Pride and Prejudice" and "Emma," will re-emerge among the royalty of romance. In May, Headline publishers will issue her six novels as "Classic Romances," with glossy pastel covers depicting dashing dandies and bonneted Regency beauties, Reuters reported yesterday from London. "Our aim would very much be every airport bookshop, every supermarket," said the Headline fiction editor Harriet Evans. Complaining that Austen's novels had always been marketed in a dry, academic way, she said: "It is such a shame, as she is the archetypal popular novelist. She is the godmother of modern women's fiction." Patrick Stokes, chairman of the Jane Austen Society, with 2,000 members in Britain, said, "I am all for it." But Patricia Clarke of the organization's London branch disagreed. "It is a pity that everything has to be dumbed down," she said. Joel Rickett, deputy editor of the trade magazine The Bookseller, said, "Repackaging the classics is a tried and tested formula -- oldies are still goodies."

Footnotes

Lincoln Center Theater will stage the first Broadway revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic 1949 musical "South Pacific," during the 2007-8 season, a spokesman for the theater confirmed yesterday. The production, which has not been cast, will be directed by Bartlett Sher ("The Light in the Piazza"). Diana DeGarmo, one of the most popular "American Idol" contestants despite a second-place finish in 2004, is about to make her Broadway debut. Ms. DeGarmo will join the cast of "Hairspray" at the Neil Simon Theater on Feb. 7 in the role of Penny Pingleton, the best friend of the heroine, Tracy Turnblad. Richard Thomas will star as the justice-seeking Juror No. 8 when Roundabout Theater Company mounts its first national touring production, Reginald Rose's "Twelve Angry Men." The drama, directed by Scott Ellis, above, ("The Little Dog Laughed"), will begin its 30-week tour at the Shubert Theater in New Haven on Sept. 19. "In the Continuum" has been extended again. Written and performed by Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter, right, the play about AIDS among African and African-American women, which was to have closed on Jan. 28, will now run through Feb. 18 at the Perry Street Theater.